HISTORY OF WINNEBAGO COUNTY.

the mill at one time. The settlers would bring their grain to
the mill and return home waiting often several weeks for their
grist to be ground. All the other mills were situated on small
streams which were frozen in the winter; but the Fox river
at the Winnebago Rapids never froze over. The agreement on
which they operated the mill was to repair the dam and mills,
and give Mr. Reed half the tolls received. Stephen Hartwell
was engaged as miller. Mr. Reed had run the mills indiffer-
ently the previous season; but now they were run regularly.
Both lived many years in Neenah, and became successful busi-
ness men. Mr. Vining's old home, set back in the trees a mile
west of the city on the Vinland road, still stands. Mr. Harlow
was killed while leaving the cars at the Wisconsin Central
depot in October, 1887. He was then sixty-nine years of age.
This season Mr. Ira Baird migrated to the site of Neenah, in
the cold month of December, 1845, with his wife and child, in a
farm wagon drawn by three-year-old steers, from Watertown.
At Oshkosh, where they arrived at night, the river was frozen
over, and there being no shelter, they were obliged to venture
over the thin ice or freeze to death. The oxen froze their
noses, and Mr. Baird's face and hands were frozen. The cross-
ing was extremely dangerous, but there was no other way.
Arriving the next day in Neenah they took possession of one of
the block houses.
The origin of the name of "Neenah" has been explained in
different ways. Pierre Pauquette, the giant half-breed porter
at Portage, related to Mr. Michael Brisbois, of Prairie du Chien,
the trader, that once Governor Doty was traveling with an In-
dian, and pointed to the Fox river, asked its native name.
Supposing the Governor meant the element and not its geo-
graphical name, responded "Neenah," the Menominee name for
water. Governor Doty, supposing this the aboriginal name of
the river, endeavored to have it restored.1
Hon. Morgan L. Martin, of Green Bay, wrote of the origin of
the name "Neenah," as applied to the Fox river, giving a simi-
lar origin. "Mr. John B. Pettival, a civil engineer, sent by
Secretary of War J. R. Poinsett, during Van Buren's adminis-
tration, to make a survey of Fox river, with a view to its im-
provement in 1837, gave it the name "Neenah" in his report.
It had never before been known by that name. It is said that
he found Indians, when making his exploration between Green

1. 9 Wis. Hist. Colls. 300.

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